Kirksville MO to Quincy Illinois

5 hours 51 minutes to ride 75.6 miles.

Leaving the hotel we knew it was not going to be a good day when we saw the flags all flying in the wrong direction. We only had 75 miles to go today so they thought it was almost like a rest day. This sounds good in theory but the headwind made it a challenge. Everyone started at 7:15 this morning so a bit of a kerffufle with everyone leaving at once.

The only SAG of the day was at mile 31. We should have been making good time until then but on the rollers you need to be going around 30 mph down hill to carry the speed up the hill. With the wind we could only manage 19 mph so this made for a long, tiring day.

After the SAG there were fewer rollers but the headwind was in our face all the time. We stopped at a store in Ewing at mile 51 and found mike and Tom sitting there looking very tired. They left before us so we weren't able to hook up with them. We had lost the regulars in our group with the hills and some mechanical problems before the wind got really bad and they told us to keep going. Just Barry and I to struggle with the wind. Stopped again at a truck stop at mile 63 with the tandem. We all talked about how the wind was affecting our day. We turned on to SR 24E and finally had the wind at our back, but then the road changed direction and back to fighting a headwind. We had to cross a narrow bridge to get over the Mississippi river which forced us to take a whole traffic lane so thankfully there was not much traffic. Once on the other side you are in Illinois, but the state line is actually in the middle of the bridge. We sprinkled sand at the sign while Barry went back out on to the bridge to take a picture of the sign. From there it was a pleasant 3.5 mile ride through Quincy to the hotel. We are not sure what Quincy is famous for but there are lots of huge houses along Maine street where we came in.

We were on our own for dinner tonight so a bunch of us went to a Japanese steak house to have dinner and laugh about today. I know some of you are wondering if this is fun...the answer is yes, at times especially with the group and it is also very challenging at times.